Sara
Icome out of the bathroom and Ady isn’t there, but I do smell something amazing. Coffee. Coffee and pastries. As I move through the apartment, I’m pleasantly surprised to see Adrien sitting on the couch in grey sweatpants.
Yes. In the flesh.
I stop in my tracks and take a moment to drool. Ady is arranging everything on the coffee table. He couldn’t be any more perfect at this exact moment. God, the man is easy on the eye. To think this is what I’ll be waking up to every day. I mean, I never forgot how good-looking he was, but with age Ady has definitely got fitter.
I’m biting my bottom lip, and it’s as if he has some special superpower when he knows I’m doing it. Maybe he sensed me staring. No, we’ll go with the superpower thing, that sounds cooler.
“Do I even want to know what’s going through that brain of yours right now?”
He sips his coffee and even makes that look sexy.
God, the man has turned me into some kind of sex addict in the last couple of days. I guess that’s what happens when you’ve been on a long dry spell, right?
“Nothing much, really. Just really enjoying the view.”
He laughs. The type of genuine laugh I’ve come to love hearing from him. He has it a lot around Bryan, I’m finding.
Falling onto the couch, I reach for my coffee. This tastes perfect. Knowing Ady, it will be some kind of expensive blend.
I need to rip this band-aid off quickly, and I need to be efficient. Act like it's some kind of pitch. Something I need to get out clearly. He needs to know everything. I know I’ve not been myself for the last few days.
Hell, Bryan said I’ve not been myself since it happened. I know he’s right. God, why did I push everyone away or hide them in their own little cupboards? It’s been making me miserable.
It’s then I notice Ady isn’t saying a word. He’s just staring at me. Waiting oh so patiently. Not his usual way of handling things.
The guy is not patient, so this must be killing him. What I love, though, is he’s not pushing me. It's almost as if he knows. Then the penny drops. He knows, or at least he knows some of it.
“So I need to talk to you about something, but I’m guessing that you already know.”
He takes a deep breath. It’s then I am certain he knows. He’s just trying to weigh up how truthful he needs to be.
“I’ve heard some, but I’d rather hear it from you.”
He sips his coffee again, oozing calmness.
It’s helps, but it’s also freaking me out a bit. So I tell him everything that went down at Mason Marketing, and I mean everything. The documents I got my hands on for Bryan’s friend. The long-drawn hours of working with the FBI agents involved in the case, everything. How I took everything that people threw at me and all the grief. I told him about how hard it had been to get a job again. People talk and well I had to start from scratch again. I tell him how Catherine and Bryan wanted me to move out here, and how Catherine had practically begged me to move.
“The truth is, I didn’t want people feeling sorry for me. I didn’t want to see pity in Catherine’s eyes. That’s why Katie’s venom hit so close last night. She said you kept looking at me with pity in your eyes.”
This gets an angry grunt from him.
“I know she was lying, but she just hit too close to home. I think I needed some breathing room, so thanks for giving me that last night.”
“Well, thank Bryan. He’s the one who knew you needed space. He’s also the one who told me how bad it’s been for you.”
He pulls me into his chest.
“Sara I really wish you’d have reached out when it all went down. I could have helped. I would have helped. You know that, right?”
“I know.”
I really did know that. I also know I needed to do it for myself and I guess in some messed up way I was protecting him.
“So I’m guessing the pity thing is a bit of a trigger for you?”
“Yeah, I guess so. I never thought Catherine and Bryan were going to put an end to the party and move it to a smaller one up here. I feel kind of bad.”